Designed by the prestigious Great Yarmouth Borough Architect J. W. Cockerill back in 1888, refurbishment works on the dilapidated building which was once the ticket office at Wellesley Recreation Ground are now complete.
The work, which was was carried out by Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust, was funded by a grant from Coastal Revival Fund awarded to the Wellesley project in 2018. The Coastal Revival Fund supports projects which help revive heritage assets that are important to local communities but have not yet reached their full potential or are facing neglect.
Situated to the south west corner of the recreation ground adjacent to the gate on the corner of Wellesley Road and Albermarle Road, the building had suffered extensive rot after falling into a state of disrepair once it was no longer used.
It has now undergone timber and roof repairs, had a completely new underground electric supply installed and has been redecorated, as well as having new cast iron fitted to the gutters, downpipes, and connection to an existing manhole. Now repaired, the building will be repurposed into a storage unit.
Cllr Andy Grant, chairman of the Housing and Neighbourhood Committee, said: “The refurbishment of the ticket office at Wellesley Recreation Ground is another step towards ensuring this important historic and recreational asset of Great Yarmouth reaches its full potential.”
The renovation of the ticket office is part of a wider project by Great Yarmouth Borough Council to sympathetically improve the historically important ground for great community use. The proposals include a new state-of-the-art 3G pitch and improvements to the athletics track, repair and maintenance of the Grade II football stadium and the upgrading of stadium facilities, improved lighting, and the installation of CCTV.
Seven of Great Yarmouth's most iconic buildings will be having festive light ups for the upcoming Christmas holiday.
The council will once again switch on the lighting on the Town Hall, St George's Theatre, the Tolhouse, the Minster Church of St Nicholas, the Arc Cinema at the Royalty, the North West Tower and Gorleston Pavilion.
The collection includes five listed buildings and a scheduled monument, with all the buildings representing a special place in the town's history and cultural life.
The lighting has been used to highlight various local and national issues since its installation. In April 2020, the Town Hall bathed in blue light to praise key workers on the coronavirus frontline and in February 2022, the buildings were lit up mauve and green to highlight the needs and care of people living with a rare disease.
Thanks to public feedback, a walking trail to highlight some of the tremendous 'ghost signs' in the town centre has successfully launched.
Time and Tide Museum and Great Yarmouth Borough Council teamed up to create a trail that would send participants back in time whilst exploring the parts of the borough’s history which are hidden in plain sight.
'Ghost signs' are old shop signs and architectural features that have survived despite changes in the use of buildings.
The trail team asked residents to share their memories, photographs, and other images and that has helped create a unique downloadable map that can be used to explore the historical advertising and signs across the Town Centre.
As part of community consultation work around an ambitious project to restore the Winter Gardens, Great Yarmouth Borough Council has been engaging with young people to find out what students would like to see as part of the exciting regeneration scheme.
The Winter Gardens is the last surviving Victorian glass house in the country and, in 2021, was one of five transformational projects across the country to be awarded a Heritage Horizon Award from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The award will see the iron and glass structure restored to its former glory as a people’s palace on the town’s seafront. Complete with beautiful gardens, galleries and café areas it will offer both entertainment and education, breathing new life into the area.
Rachel Daniel, the council’s Winter Gardens partnership and engagement co-ordinator - along with Time and Tide Museum’s youth engagement officer, Tricia Hall - recently took part in a Green Week event at Great Yarmouth’s East Norfolk Sixth Form College.
Working with Great Yarmouth community organisation Creative Collisions, the pair spent the day talking to students about the environmental features of the project, covering everything from planting ideas to sustainability solutions.
Businesses and would-be entrepreneurs around Great Yarmouth now have easy access to free business support and advice thanks to the launch of an exciting new Enterprise Hub.Great Yarmouth Borough Council has teamed up with the Town Centre Partnership to launch the service in Market Gates Shopping Centre.
The Hub is a new one stop shop for start-up, new and more established businesses and offers business advice, support, and training. Businesses can also book the space for their own business events.
The opening times are 10am – 4pm on, Monday to Friday. His Worship the Mayor, Cllr Graham Plant, officially opened the Enterprise Hub with a ribbon cutting on Wednesday 10, August at 11am, which was followed by refreshments and networking.
An innovative campaign to reduce plastics left on local beaches has launched today, with the aim of highlighting the importance of disposing of waste correctly.
Three new permanent #BottleShipsGY art installations have been installed in Great Yarmouth, Hemsby and Gorleston aimed at encouraging beachgoers to dispose of their plastic drinks bottles correctly, preventing them from entering the sea.
Each ship has been designed by artists Hatty + Young and has been inspired by vessels that form part of our proud maritime history, featuring plaques with historic information on each ship. Great Yarmouth Jetty saw the arrival of HMS Elephant, the Lydia Eva landed in Gorleston and Hemsby pays homage to its lifeboat, Sea Weaver. The BottleShips will fill with plastic bottles which will be collected for recycling.
